Shower stall door hinge



Feb. 3, 1953 J. w. 'BACKMAN SHOWER STALL DOOR HINGE Filed April 7, 1948 j INVENTOR.

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Patented Feb. 3, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SHQWER STALL DOOR HINGE Application April 7, 1948, Serial No. 19,541

3 Claims. 1

My invention relates to hinges for doors, and more particularly, although not necessarily, to hinges for shower stall doors of the type disclosed in Patent No. 2,136,729, issued November 15, 1938, to William Stahl.

Hinges of this type comprise two transversely curved tongues, one fixed on the door and the other fixed on the door jamb, and both are extensive in length therewith. They are interengaged at their curved portions by inserting one longitudinally into the other, and they are secured against longitudinal movement relatively by locking devices, such as screws, which extend through slots transversely the tongues. As the frames and ja bs for shower stall doors are constructed of extended aluminum, and the hinge tongues are integral therewith, they, too, are constructed of aluminum. Where the lockin devices, such as screws, are employed they are constructed of steel or other metal relatively hard as compared to aluminum. As such locking devices have physical contact with the hinge tongues in supporting the weight of the door and preventing longitudinal movement relatively, under continued opening and closing of the door the locking devices wear away the tongues at the point of contact. This results in allowing the door tongue to move longitudinally downward relative to the jamb tongue, and, in consequence, the door is permitted to sag until its bottom edge engages the sill of the doorway to prevent free opening and closing of the door.

M invention has for a purpose the provision in a door hinge of the type specified, of a door supporting and locking device which permanent- 1y secures the tongues against longitudinal movement relatively, to permanently prevent sagging of the door and thus at all times insurin free swinging movement of the door to open and closed positions. The locking device is so constructed and associated with the door and jarnb that while necessitating slotting of the hinge tongues, its parts are out of physical contact with the tongues, and thus cannot wear away the tongues to produce door sagging. Further, the parts of the device are constructed of hard metal to minimize wear resultant of relative movement thereof, and such wear is further reduced by constructing one part of the device of porous metal such as porous bronze, which is oil ma d t gi e i the requ s e ubrica propil! t red c friction t n t o parts of the device as they turn one upon the other.

I will describe only one form of door hinge and one form of door supporting device therefor em- 2 bodying my invention, and will then point out the novel features thereof in claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view showing in front outside elevation a door applied to a shower stall, thed-oor being closed and having applied to the door and the jamb on which it is hung, a hinge embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view tahen on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. l, but with the door in open position.

Fig. l is a fragmentary elevational view of the door and jamb as it appears when viewing the same in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a detailed perspective view of the two brackets of the door supporting and locking device in the positions which they assume when the door is in open position.

\Vith specific reference to the drawings, my invention by way of example is shown applied to a hinge of the form disclosed in the aforesaid patent, and wherein one transversely curved tongue '1 thereof is an integral part of one vertical rail l5 of the extruded metal door frame F containing a glass panel P, while the; other tongue Tl which is transversely but oppositely curved from the tongue T, is integral with a jamb rail R likewise of extruded aluminum and secured by screws IE to one vertical wall ll of the doorway to the shower stall. The frame rail I5 is of the same tubular construction as the frame rail in the aforesaid patent, but the jarnb rail R is composed of a web it with integral flanges l9 and 26 at its edges which bear at their edges against the wall ii, and a bridge flange 2% which spans the inner joint between the jamb rail and the door rail (5 when the door is closed, to prevent escape of waterfrom the shower stall.

The door supporting device of my invention is designated generally at D and comprises, in its present embodiment, one member B secured to the frame rail i5, and another. member Bl secured to the web it, the tongues T and Ti being formed with pairs of registering slots 22 and 23 respec tively, for receiving parts of the members, and the web I8 being formed with a pair of slots 24 which register with the slots 23 of the tongue Ti, but do not extend through the flange as best shown in Fig. 3.

The. first member )3 of the device best illus trated in Fig. 5 as comprising a substantially U-shaped bracket preferably constructed of steel,

and having a pair of arms 25 held rigidly in spaced parallelism by a cross member 26, and ears 21 on the free ends of the arms. The second member Bl comprises a substantially U-shaped bracket constructed preferably of porous bronze to absorb a suitable lubricant, and having a pair of arms 28 held rigidly in spaced parallelism by a cross member 29, and ears 36 on the free ends of the arms.

In practice I employ a plurality of devices D (preferably three see Fig. 1) in order to adequately support the door on the jamb rail. To hang the door, the rail R, before it is secured to the wall I! by the screws 16, is connected to the door by interengaging the hinge tongues T and TI to hingedly connect one to the other. This is accomplished by first alining opposed ends of the tongues and then sliding the jamb tongue onto the doortongue so that the hooked portions thereof interlock transversely. When the two tongues are brought into proper position lengthwise the slots 22 or 23 of one tongue register with those of the other tongue to permit application of the door supporting device/ Each device is applied as follows: A screw 8! is extended throughan opening 32 in the member 26 of the bracket'B, and threaded in the rail l to secure the bracket B to the rail, with the arms 25 positioned transversely of the rail and the ears 2'! within the slots 22 and 23 and projecting into the web slots 24. The bracket BI is secured to the outer side of the web 58 of the jamb rail, by extending a screw 33 through an opening 34 in the member 29 and threading it in the web. The arms 28 extend across the web, with the ears 30 in the tongue slots and projecting into the web slots.

As shown'in Figs. 4 and 5, the length of the bracket Bi is less than that of the bracket for a distance corresponding to the thickness of the ears 2'! so that in assembling the two brackets, the ears 36 can be extended between the ears 2! but to have contact therewith, and whereby the bracket B is supported for turning movement on the bracket Bl to allow the necessary rotative movement of the tongue T on the tongue Ti.

Once all of the locking devices are individually applied as described, the door and the jamb are lifted into the doorway and the jamb rail R secured to the Wall I! by the screws 16, so that the door is now hung on the jamb rail by the hinge tongues. As so hung the devices serve to secure the tongues in fixed longitudinal position relatively and yet allow free turning movement of the door on the jamb, since the ears 2? and to are out of contact with the walls of the slots 22, 23, and 24, and at their points of contact are lubricated by the oilin the pores of the ears til to reduce friction to minimum, particularly between the upper ears 2'! and 39 where the load of the door is actually supported. Inasmuch as the ears are spaced from the walls of the slots in the tongues, no wear of the tongues at these points can occur, and since the ears are of hard metals their wearing qualities are substantially permanent, the supporting and locking functions of the devices are practically permanent to support the door tongue against downward inovement on the jamb tongue and thus permanently prevent sagging 0f the door to maintain it clear of the sill of the doorway and thus insure, at all times, free swinging movement of the door to open and closed positions.

It will be noted that the slots 24 do not extend through the flange 20, and that the slots 22 in the tongue 'I are to the inner side of the flange 26. As a consequence, a continuous and unbroken surface of the flange 20 is presented to View when the door is in closed position.

Although I have herein shown and described only one form of door hinge including one form of locking device, embodying my invention, it is to be understood that various changes and mod ifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of my invention and the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a vertical hinge construction for a metal framed door mounted on a metal door jamb, a vertical member of the door frame and said jamb having continuous interfitting marginal portions, means supporting the weight of the door and holding it against vertical movement, comprising: first bracket means secured to the inner edge of the door frame and formed with plate-like heads extending horizontally through slots formed in the interfitting margins of the door frame and door jamb; and second bracket means secured to the inner edge of the door jamb and formed with plate like heads extending horizontally through the slots formed in the interfitting margins of the door frame and door jamb into engagement with and supporting the plate like heads of the first bracket means.

2. In a vertical hinge construction for a metal framed door mounted on a metal door jamb, a

' vertical member of the door frame and said jamb having continuous interfitting marginal portions, means supporting weight of the door, comprising: first bracket means secured to the inner edge of the door frame and formed with plate-like heads extending horizontally through slots formed in the interfitting margins of the door frame and door jamb; and second bracket means secured to the inner edge of the door jamb and formed with plate-like heads extending horizontally through the slots formed in the interfitting margins of the door frame and door jamb into engagement with and supporting the plate-like heads of the first bracket means and also projecting into grooves in the inner vertical face of the door jamb, said grooves in the door jamb being covered from view in the closed position of the door.

3. Means for supporting the weight of a door as set forth in claim 2 and in which the heads of said second bracket means are arranged between the heads of said first bracket means and are formed from a material impregnated with a lubricant.

JOHN W. BACKMAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

